The inventive concept disclosed herein relates to an electronic device and a method of manufacturing the same and more particularly, to a stretchable electronic device and a method of manufacturing the same.
A stretchable electronic device may maintain electrical functions even if a substrate is expanded by the stress applied from the outside. The stretchable electronic device has applicability in various fields, including sensor skin for a robot, a wearable communication element, a bio element embedded in/attached to a human body, a next-generation display beyond the limits of a simple bendable and/or flexible element.
A typical stretchable electronic device has a structure in which metal interconnection may be expanded. The metal interconnection may be transferred to the surface of a pre-strained stretchable substrate and then formed in a wave shape by the contraction of the stretchable substrate. The metal interconnection may give stretchability to an electronic device. However, a typical stretchable electronic device experiences the restriction of the strechability of the metal interconnection by the amount of the pre-strain initially applied to a substrate. In addition, the wave-shaped metal interconnection has a drawback that it is difficult to be applied to a large area and ensure reliability, because its manufacturing processes are complex compared to general semiconductor device manufacturing processes.
Another typical stretchable electronic device may include the interconnection of a stretchable material with conductivity instead of metal. The conductive stretchable material mainly includes conductive materials, such as conductive polymer, carbon nano tube, graphene, etc.
However, the conductive stretchable material may have drawbacks that it has higher electric resistance compared to metal while having high expandability and it has a difficulty in applying fine patterning of a micrometer level.
Still another typical stretchable electronic device may include interconnection in the shape of a 2D plane spring. It is easy for the spring-shaped interconnection to reduce costs and ensure reliability because related interconnection manufacturing processes are compatible with general semiconductor device processes, and the spring-shaped interconnection may have high conductivity. However, the spring-shaped interconnection has a limit in increasing an expanding rate because strain is locally concentrated on only a specific part of interconnection and damage occurs when being stretched.